Catalyst
by Spacefille
Summary: When Greg quits his job and disappears, Nick sets out to find him. What he finds is something very unexpected, even for a CSI who believes he has seen everything.
1. Chapter 1

Authors Notes: I know there is a large Nick/Greg fanbase out there but so far I've only read a handful fanfics from it. So I have no idea if this has been done already or not. Special thanks to Damgel and KC for helping with the fic.

###

Her name had been Camilla or something like that. Honestly I didn't even really catch her name, I had been too distracted. All I knew was she felt really good against me when we danced and even better when we took it back to my place.

In retrospect I should have never done that. "That" being going home with a stranger, even if the sex was really REALLY good. Especially since I woke up sometime later, lying face first down in the dirt in a park near my home.

I thought that I had been drugged what with my head buzzing and all, and didn't feel much beyond disappointment in myself for not being more careful with the local "wildlife". Ha ha. Way to get yourself drugged and mugged, Greg, I thought to myself. Not one of your brightest moments, that's for sure.

The rest of my walk home from that was in a daze. I hadn't quite gotten back to my apartment when I saw someone. A jogger, coming towards me.

It took over an hour for me to realize what, exactly, I had done to that jogger. And why.

###

Two hours after I walked into work, on my day off, and handed Ecklie my notice. I made some sort of jumbled excuse – gotta go home and help my parents 'cause Papa Olaf is sick, don't know when I'll be back, better just to quit. Then I got the hell out of there before he could protest and before I ran into anyone else from the night shift.

I had been here since the day after that. Moving took the rest of the first night as I took what I needed from my place and stuffed it in my car. As soon as I moved in I set up the makeshift lab and ditched my car a few blocks away where I knew it wouldn't be noticed for a good while.

I thought I did a pretty good job at covering my tracks. I needed to stay hidden and I also needed the time. I had to figure out what the hell was going on before and I hurt someone else.

It had been a few days since then. My head had started to buzz on the second day. It was low frequency and constantly there, pounding at the back of my skull.

Now, three days later, the buzzing in my head had become unbearable. I had made no progress in my experiments. I had tested my clothes and swabbed a sample from my neck but without the equipment in the lab at work I could only do so much. So I focused on what I could work on with a chemistry set and a high powered microscope - my blood.

So far I couldn't find any thing... so I experimented with antibiotics and a couple illegal Mexican concoctions as well.

Nothing seemed to help.

I almost wanted to go back to the lab and see if I could find some excuse to use their equipment, maybe bribe Archie, but I was afraid of what would happen if…

"Greg? You here man?"

I looked up sharply at the sound of the familiar Texan drawl and stifled a groan. Oh no.

At the same time my stomach twisted with something I wished was revulsion and was rather too close to arousal for my comfort.

That... wasn't a good sign. No, this wasn't good at all.

And then I thought 'What part of quitting my job and moving away don't they understand?' Granted I didn't give them any notice, but still.

"I know you didn't leave, Greg… listen to me. I just want to help you," Nick's voice was coming closer.

No no no no no… this so wasn't happening. My hand shook as I put down the test tube as carefully as I could. I eyed the door, the only exit. I wouldn't be able to make it to the door in time…

I drew in a shallow breath between my teeth. Even if I did make it out in time, no matter where I hid, Nick'd know I was here recently. In a dusty old place like this the clean chemistry set would stick out like a sore thumb. The laptop and microscopes were pretty obvious too.

I decided that I had to try.

I surprised myself at how fast I ran, for the door, and up the stairs, right past a startled Nick. I barely registered the "hey!" as I darted into another room.

Drawing the door closed behind myself I slumped against it and tried to convince my head to stop spinning. Gotta think fast… gotta…

Nick was coming up the stairs.

I went for the window without even thinking, drawing the heavy curtain aside for a half a second before drawing it back again in a flash. Daylight. Damn! I should have been paying attention to the time!

My arm was smoking from where the sunlight hit it. I stared as the skin began to crack and peel grotesquely… yet I could barely feel it. 'Dissociative,' my brain supplied helpfully. 'Dopamine and adrenaline. The pain will kick in in a second.'

If, of course, my pain receptors where still working and all that.

I clenched the injured arm to my chest, looking around desperately for another place to hide. It was useless, I knew, and Nick was getting closer.

"Go away!" I shouted as I dodged for the closet. The musty smell of rotting clothes and mouse droppings hit me like a slap in the face, but I ignored it. I shoved myself in as deep as I could. The buzzing had become a roaring in my head and I let my head fall back against the wall with a dull thump. God. I could smell him. From in here, even over the smell of everything else.

I would have found the enhanced senses thing fascinating if I wasn't so damn afraid.

"Greg?" Nick called out and I could hear him open the door to the room. At the same time the smell increased tenfold and it was so SO good…

I clenched my teeth and dug my fingernails into my palm. No. Bad Greg. Down boy.

I started to stand, almost against my will. My eyes widened. Stay down, I commanded myself mentally. Stay down!

My vision was beginning to tunnel and I was panting with the effort to stay in control of myself. "Nick please," I begged, and my voice sounded broken. I winced at that. "Please just go *away*…"

"Greg…" his voice was just outside of the closet. Thankfully he didn't draw it open. "Just talk to me man."Nick sounded awfully worried. "You can tell me. I'm good for it, you know that, G. Did someone hurt you?" he paused. "Cause if someone did, you know we're there for you… just say the world and we'll…"

Okay, new tactic. "Nick," I tried to make my voice sound as commanding as possible. "You need to leave here. Right. Now." Mentally I groaned. There was no way I sounded threatening enough. Nick wasn't going to buy it for a second.

Sure enough the closet door began to open. "I'm sorry Greg, but I'm not going anywhere. Not until…"

Nick didn't get any further than that. I lost control.

###

The impact threw Nick back. We both landed on the floor, hard, me on top of him and I was dimly aware of the sound of him hollering in my ear as my teeth closed on his neck.

… It was just the last time.

I was fully aware of everything even though I could control nothing. I felt the flood of delicious, satisfying warmth into my mouth, and gulped it down eagerly - felt the fact that his struggles were doing amazing things to my body and ohgod I was hard, again, just like last time and I wanted nothing more than to rip Nick's clothes off and do nasty nasty things to his body, and now I was touching him, through his pants and ohgod this was NICK and I had to stop, stop NOW, stop PLEASE and I was dimly aware that someone was screaming.

And then I realized that someone was me. In my head. Screaming at me to stop. Stop before I killed him.

If there was anyone in the world that didn't deserve to die, it was Nick. Nick who had been through so much. Nick who had been shot at, shot, buried alive, pushed to his death and still managed to get up and go to work the next day. Nick, who was always nice to me, beyond some good natured ribbing here and there, and always helped me out when I needed it. Nick, who was currently trying to shove me away, and who I was grinding against as I snarled like an animal, hell I pretty much was one, with no control, no control at all and his shouts had died down to a minimum. Which… was because he was reaching for his gun. I felt more than saw the movement of his hand to his hip.

I guess mortal danger worked better than anything because FINALLY my brain somehow managed to override my body and I wrenched away with a gasp.

I sat up and stared down at Nick in horror. My long time co-worker looked up at me, an expression of half confusion, half anger on his face. That wasn't good.

"Greg?" he questioned warily.

I pushed away from him and fell back on my butt, staring at him with wide eyes. Christ, I probably looked horrible, with blood all over my mouth and chin. I swiped my mouth against my arm and just looked at him. I wouldn't blame him if he decided to blow me away right now.

His hand was still on his gun as he sat up, but he didn't draw it. I waited for him to make the first move.

It didn't take long. "What the hell—" Anger won over the confusion on his face and Nick stood up. When I didn't move he reached down to grab my arm, I guess to pull me to my feet so he could demand answers good and proper.

I screamed. Oh, I thought a bit ironically. That would be the pain response.

And then, with faint irritation, I thought - if I'm a vampire why the hell don't I have super fast healing?

###

Nick dropped my arm as fast as he had grabbed it. "What's wrong with your arm?" he asked quickly, staring at his own hand which now had bits of burnt skin sticking to it. He looked from his hand to me and back again, his eyes wide.

I just clenched the arm to myself, my teeth gritted. Nevermind my arm. I had just attacked him. And bit him. And… what the hell was he doing?

Then it registered that he was going for the window.

"NO!" I shouted. I scrambled to my feet and dodged for Nick. A split second later realized I wouldn't make it in time, so I changed my trajectory. Instead I leapt for the corner of the same wall as the window as Nick threw the curtains wide.

The hot Las Vegas sun streamed into the room and I shoved myself against the wall, staring with wide eyes at the patch of sunlight in the center of the room. My skin was already starting to tingle from the indirect exposure. It wouldn't kill me, at least I didn't think it would, but I didn't want to take any chances either. "Close the curtains!" I gasped out, well aware that Nick was staring at me. I wrapped my arms around myself. "You gotta close the curtains! Please."

Nick muttered something under his breath and yanked the curtains closed again. In a few short strides he had crossed the room and flicked on the bedroom light, using up some of that electricity I was shamelessly leeching off of the city.

"Are you okay with this?" Nick asked from across the room, his brow creased with concern.

I nodded. "T-thanks." I stammered out, grateful I wasn't on fire.

Nick nodded back and started across the room towards me. I saw how his hand fell against his gun again as he approached.

I didn't blame him really, what with the attack and all. I looked down at the ground, not wanting to see how Nick's neck was bloody and how it had stained the top of his shirt a darker shade of blue.

Nick crouched down in front of me, far enough away that he could leap back if he had to. "You're not gonna jump me again are you?" he asked a bit suspiciously.

Wordlessly I shook my head "no".

When he seemed to visibly relax at that, my amazement caught up with me. "Wow, I can't believe you didn't shoot me," I exclaimed. I instantly felt like a dumb ass.

Nick, for his part, looked surprised and then a bit horrified. "*Shoot* you?" he repeated. He shook his head. "I don't know what's going on here, but I can tell that you aren't feeling right..."

I just looked at him. Not feeling right? Not feeling… "Nick I don't know if you noticed or anything," I said a bit dryly. "But I just bit you."

"Yeah," he said, bringing his hand up to touch his neck. "Got me pretty good too," he shook his head and I gapped at him in amazement. I knew Nick was rock solid but dude… right now he was a friggin' mountain. "I'll get it checked out."

My mouth fell open. "I – I did other things…" Guilt rose inside of me.

He shook his head again and cut me off with a raised hand and a really stern look. "Later. Let me see your arm."

I gulped and nodded. Well. Okay then. I held my arm out. The skin *was* healing, I could see that it had shrunk and begun to turn pink around the edges. The middle it still looked like a third degree burn.

Nick carefully took the arm and studied it. When he looked up again the worry was back on his face. "It's bad, Greg," he said. And then he said the most ridiculous thing ever. "Is this why you quit? Pain killers can really mess a man up you know."

I nearly laughed out loud at him. No, I wouldn't have quit a job I fought for for like three years just because of a third degree burn on my arm. He had to have seen my teeth by now. The sunlight, biting, blood… after all that, and he still couldn't tell that I wasn't quite human anymore?

Then again, of course not. It was Nick. He was awesome at piecing puzzles together. He could pull a logical conclusion out of the tiniest shred of evidence. But supernatural stuff? He was always the first to rule out anything that wasn't firmly stuck in "reality".

May as well go all out. "I quit," I said carefully. "Because I'm not really alive right now." The confused look on Nick's face grew. "Nick," I said finally with exasperation. "I'm a vampire."

He looked at me for a couple seconds, then broke into a half grin. "Naw," he said. He reached out and put his hand against my forehead. "Man, whatever you're on must have messed you up good, you're not acting like yourself at all," he got to his feet. "Stay right there, I'm gonna call..."

"No!" He didn't even have a chance to pull out his cellphone. I jumped to my feet and grabbed his arm. "Don't." I added breathlessly. "You can't. Nick, please. You have to listen to me. No one can know about this."

He frowned and opened his mouth to protest but I continued. "Nick LOOK at me. Look at my teeth," I opened my mouth as wide as I could. My canines had gotten progressively longer since that first night. He would have to have been blind not to see they were too long to be natural. "I bit you. I got this," I showed him my arm again, which had visibly healed even more. "When I opened up those curtains."

He was studying me quietly. "If I go outside I'll DIE... you've got to believe me, Nick, please." God I sounded pathetic.

Nick looked from me to my arm again and studied it long and hard. It had stopped looking like a third degree burn and was slipping closer to a second. I had no doubt that in a few minutes it'd be pretty much look good as new.

"Your arm..." he began, and I nodded and drew a deep breath.

"Look. Just watch for a second," I walked away from him and back to the window. Standing to the side I drew the curtains back just enough that a sliver of light came into the room. Then, taking another deep breath I raise my hand and drew it across the light.

That was enough to burn it quite well. I let out a small cry of pain and stumbled back from the sunlight, staring as the skin on my hand and fingers quickly went from pink to red and then black and started to smoke.

Nick let out a shout and ran for the window, yanking it closed again before turning to me and taking my arm in his hand. "Greg, Greg..." he groaned as he stared at my hand. It was shaking, even while being burnt to a crisp. I was a bit surprised the fingers even worked anymore as I tried to move them. It was like watching something out of a horror movie as they clenched and bits of blackened skin flaked off. Nick actually gasped out loud.

"You see," I said with a weak laugh. "We go outside there will be no more Greg."

Nick stared for a very long moment, then swore under his breath, which, for the record I had never heard Nick do before... at least not at work. He let go of my arm when it seemed like no more burning was going to happen and turned away. I could practically see the gears turning in his head as he paced a bit. I let him. Supernatural stuff would be hard to swallow for someone who isn't into supernatural stuff. Heck, I wasn't even sure if Nick was the type to watch monster movies. So I let him pace.

He stopped after several moments and let out a long sigh as he sat down against the wall. He scrubbed at his face with his hand briefly before turning back to me. "Okay," he said. "Okay. If that happens to you..." he made a hand waving motion at me. "Does that mean it will happen to me too?" he touched his neck. It had stopped bleeding. And, unless I was seeing things, the bite mark seemed to have faded away awfully fast.

Still... I shook my head. "I'd like to test your blood but... I don't think so. I mean all the folklore stuff on vampires... you'd have to drink my blood for me to infect you..."

"... Infect me," he repeated.

I nodded quickly and sat down so I was facing him. "Look, I've run a whole lot of tests on myself in the last couple days. As far as I can tell, it modified my DNA. Like a cancer, except all over. Mutation. I've been trying all sorts of medication in case I'm wrong but I don't think so. But..." he was starting to look slightly irritated at the talking. "I didn't bleed on you. You bled on me. Which means you should be clean. Of course it'd be nice to have a lab to test that on but I can't go back there. Not with the entire must drink human blood thing going on, I couldn't stop myself from attacking you, and what if I attack someone else? I could kill someone, Nick!"

He held up a hand to stop me. "I got it," he said.

I shut up obediently.

He gave me another long look. "Does anyone else know about this?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I quit right after I found out. I've been here ever since."

"Alright," he nodded as if he had processed and now accepted the information. "Okay. So you've been here since Thursday?"

I shrugged. "Minus the time it took me to set up here, yeah."

He nodded. "Okay, what happened to you to make you like this?" he waved his hand at me.

I sighed and started from the top.

###

I told him everything, with the omission of the jogger. In the version I told Nick I said I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to bite people. That's why I quit. I told him of how before that I was picked up by a knockout gorgeous girl at the bar, long brunette hair, smokey blue eyes, whose name was Camilla, or Cordelia or something like that. And yeah I know I wasn't supposed to go home with random people at bars but man, she was hot and the sex *was* great. I vaguely remembered being bit on the neck, but since it was in the middle of youknowwhat, I didn't think much of it. Next thing I knew I was upside down in the dirt, outside, in a park near my home.

Then I went into which experiments I had already run, what I planned to do next so on and so forth and Nick didn't seem to want to know much about that either.

"Give me a month," I said finally after he sat there too long with a pensive look on his face. "Just a month. Run some more experiments. Maybe try some SPF five thousand sunblock, heh," The sharp look he gave me told me he didn't think he found that very funny and I quickly cleared my throat and forced myself to be serious again. "I can't go to anyone for help like this, Nick. If anyone makes the slightest mistake, I'll spontaneously combust. If I go to a hospital and manage to survive long enough, I could easily be turned into a human pincushion. Or undead pincushion. I'd just be a body to them, something to poke with needles until they figure out what makes me tick. I need to figure out a cure myself. I at least need a chance to try to."

He was giving me that long thinking look again, but then, thank god, his head slowly started to nod. "Okay," he said finally. "Sure. I'll let you stay here and do your thing for a month, since the city's not using this building right now and all. But only that long Greg... and the moment you start acting funny again I'll have to do something, you know that."

I nodded quickly.

His frown was back, and I could tell he didn't like this at all. "I'll need a sample of your blood too. May as well get it checked in the lab, along with mine."

I'm sure the relief on my face was very plain to see. "So you'll help me?" I asked.

He made a face and got to his feet. "There is something weird going on here and you're definitely not acting yourself, but I don't want you to burn up neither. So yeah, I'll help you. Figure out what's wrong with you and all that."

He reached down to offer me a hand up. I nearly took it with my still burnt and crispy hand and quickly switched hands at the last moment.

"Now tell me," he said as he began to push me towards the door of the room. "Everything else you can remember about this girl who bit you. Maybe if we find her, we can find out what she gave you."

"What, besides a severe case of cannibalism, spontaneous combustion and death?"

"Ha. Ha." Nick replied.

###


	2. Chapter 2

Warnings: Violence

###

For the next couple days Nick was skitterish around me. It wasn't too obvious of course… just stuff like making sure there was at least an arms length between us at all times. Occasionally standing with his hand just resting on the top of his gun. Stuff like that. He didn't stay very long either. I didn't blame him and all… one of us still had to go to work.

On the second night he brought me a quarter pounder with cheese. A week ago I would have been all over that like a fiend but now it just made my stomach turn.

"Well?" Nick gave me an expectant look. "Eat up."

I eyed the hamburger and then eyed him. "That is totally not appetizing," I said.

"Have you eaten anything in the last two days?" Nick wanted to know.

"What, besides you?" It got out before I could catch it.

Nick made a face.

"Technically I haven't eaten any human food in, like, seven days," I continued quickly so he didn't have to think about that too long.

"Just eat the hamburger," Nick had his arms folded across his chest now with a semi-scowl to boot, which was Nick speak for meaning serious business. Right now, if I were back at work I'd be cowering a bit and looking for the right funny thing to say to make the situation… more awkward I guess. I was never very good at defusing tension. At least I was a good distraction. Annnnddd… Nick was still looking at me with an expectant look on his face.

"This is sooo not going to go well," I muttered as I picked up the hamburger. I stared it down for a moment, then took a bite. Then another.

The hamburger stayed down for all of thirty seconds. It came back up… all over the kitchen floor.

"Gross," Nick commented as he came over to peer over the countertop at me.

###

The third night he came over with a big brown bag. I watched as he put it in the fridge, then took a smaller brown package out of the large brown bag. He handed it to me.

It was slightly squishy. "What is it?" I asked.

"Cows blood," Nick replied. "You can order it from specialty butcher shops. Took some phoning around, but hey, I got it for you."

I stared at him and then the squishy package in my hand. "… Ew."

The cows blood stayed down a slight bit better than the hamburger. I aimed for the sink when I threw it up.

Now Nick had a slightly worried look on his face. "You can't drink that either?" he said.

I shook my head. "Looks like I'm a vegetarian," I quipped.

He frowned and started pacing. I sighed and cleaned the sink, then watched him for a bit before deciding to ignore him and go back to my chemistry set. It was all I had right now and I still had about half a pharmacy worth of drugs to test on myself.

###

The forth night I wasn't doing so well. The buzzing was getting really bad again. I was trying to keep it contained but my hands were shaking slightly as I did and redid tests.

When he got there I had been taking a rest. I had pretty much made the kitchen area and the attached dining room my home, my bed was an old mattress I had dragged down from upstairs and some blankets. The windows on the main floor were boarded up, and, until Nick showed up the front door had been as well so there wasn't much chance I'd get fried by sunlight.

I guess I had fallen asleep because the next thing I saw was a frantic looking Nick standing over me.

Right then and there, there was nothing I wanted more but to leap on him and sink my teeth into his lovely lovely neck. In fact I nearly jumped him. I forced myself to stay still with every ounce of will power I had and fisted one hand in the quilt beside me. "Hello?" I said.

Nick rocked back on his heels and looked relieved. "I thought you were dead," he said. "I couldn't find a pulse."

I stared at him, then laughed out loud.

Now I was getting the confused look again.

"First of all," I said as I sat up. "I am actually undead. Not alive or dead. Somewhere in the middle," he frowned. "And I do have a pulse. It's just kinda really slow. Last I checked." I put my fingers on my own throat to check again. … Yup there it was. Good ol' faithful, pumping that borrowed blood around. Hell it didn't even feel like my own heartbeat any more. Something alien… the beats seemed wrong. Then again my entire body had become something alien so I supposed I should be happy it was still beating at all.

"So if you have a pulse, you aren't dead," Nick said, apparently ignoring all I said about undeadness previously.

I dropped my hand from my throat and sighed. I wasn't even going to bother. "I guess not," I said as I got to my feet and padded barefoot to the kitchen.

"Greg," the worry was back in his voice. "You really need to get to a hospital..."

I shook my head "no". "We've been through this already." I said as I picked up a beaker to rinse it out.

"Well I was talking to Langston and…"

I dropped the beaker. It shattered in the sink and I barely heard it as I stared at Nick. "You TOLD someone?"

Nick winced. "No man, just some general questions you know… like if he'd ever seen someone so sensitive to sunlight they'd get burns in seconds and… what are you doing?"

I was dumping all of my work in the sink and gathering up what I could. My supply boxes and bags were inside the counters and I grabbed one of them. I only had room for a couple samples but I had all my notes, that'd be enough.

"Greg? Greg," he was in the kitchen now, trying to grab my arm. "Wait! Stop, no one knows anything! What are you doing?"

"Moving," I said with a growl and shoved a couple more papers in next to my laptop.

Now he really did grab my arm. "I toldja no one knows, Greg!"

It happened so fast I didn't even see it coming and I was the one doing it. One second Nick had my arm and then next I had him up against the wall, my own arm against his throat.

Now I'm not weak or anything but Nick is a strong man. He works out like all the time. As he pushed against my arm I barely felt it. "They'll find me," I snarled. Was that my voice? That didn't sound like my voice. "You did."

He stared at me, a bit like he was seeing me for the first time. I suppose I didn't look very friendly. Then his expression changed to a determined one. He struggled against the arm that had his neck trapped. I didn't move, so he opened his mouth and started talking, gasping to get air past my arm. "I asked… around the neighborhood. On my own time. A woman saw someone break in here." he said through gritted teeth. "Put… me… down. Now." he was angry, I could tell from his voice.

It was only then that I realized I had him a couple inches off of the ground.

Oh shit. I let him go and stumbled back.

As quick as the panic and angry had come it left, leaving me feeling weak and dizzy. And the buzzing in my head was back and worse than ever. I leaned up against the counter and groaned.

I heard the click of the safety before I saw it. I jerked my head up and stared at Nick.

He had that LOOK on his face. I'd seen it before. In profile. It was the one he gave known murders and the like.

"Nick?" I squeaked. I put my hands up in the air.

"You're not human," he said.

My jaw dropped. "Yes..." I said slowly."I told you that yesterday. And the day before. Where's your faith, huh?" I tried to joke. It's a bit hard when you got a gun trained on you.

He shook his head quickly and kept the gun pointed right at me. "No man. Your eyes."

… Eyes?

"W-what about my eyes?" I asked nervously.

He blinked then relaxed just a touch, shifting the gun away slightly. "They were glowing," he said. He brought his unoccupied hand up to rub it across his face briefly, then frowned as he looked at me.

I… hadn't expected that. I blinked a couple times. "Really?"

He dropped his hand so the gun was pointed towards the floor and clicked the safety back on. "Yeah really," he replied. "Its gone now."

Now that I wasn't going to get shot… I dropped my own hands and gave him a half grin. "You know, that's actually kinda cool," I commented.

Nick didn't look amused.

"Right," I said. "Shutting up now."

###

It was a few minutes later and we had made our way down to about Def Con 3. I was sitting on the floor against the kitchen counter, him against the dining room wall. He still had his gun out but he definitely didn't look like he was going to use it any time soon.

Nick had been quiet the entire time and I wasn't about to antagonize him by talking. More.

"I guess I owe you an apology," he said finally.

I stared at him. "For what? I mean I'm the one who just slammed you up against a wall and did an eye glowy thing at you…"

He made a face. "Yeah, I know. I'm just… well I'm sorry I doubted you and all. About the vampire thing. I guess I really didn't believe it… until now, with your face going all weird. And you're strong now… too strong," he trailed off meaningfully.

Obviously I was strong enough to finally convince him.

I smiled slightly. "It's okay, Nick. You're just doing your job in a way. I'm sorry I freaked out."

He nodded and we both lapsed into silence.

"Nick…?" I began.

"Yeah?"

"I need to leave," I told him as honestly as possible. "I can't risk what just happened to you." I waved my hand at him. "Happen to anyone else. I mean just having you HERE is torture," he looked a bit surprised. And tired. "Remember how I jumped you when you first found me?" he nodded. "I'm getting close to that point again."

He looked surprised for a second and then a change came over his face. Kinda shuttered off like when he's dealing with a really complicated crime scene and needs to focus only on that.

To make things worse he got to his feet. He took a couple of steps towards me, thinking frown still firmly stuck on his face. "If you leave," he said slowly, considering each word as he said them. "You'll jump someone else won't you?"

Oh no.

I couldn't look at him. I stared at my hands and nodded slowly. "Probably," I said quietly.

"Greg," he crouched down so he was facing me again, just like the other day. "Have you attacked anyone else besides me?"

I drew in a deep breath. And then another one. God, now my eyes were welling up with tears. I couldn't look anywhere near him so I stared at the fridge instead. What a lovely color it was. White. How nice.

"Greg," he prodded gently, just like Grissom used to. I could never lie to Grissom when he used that voice. "Talk to me."

"I…" my voice cracked and I had to try again. "I lost control. It – it was right after I woke up. In the park. The one near my house." Apparently I couldn't lie to Nick either. I looked back at him through my tears. "I think I killed her Nick. I didn't even know who she was. I – I just left her lying there…"

I silently broke down. Geez, I hadn't even done this when I ran over that kid…

I could smell more than see him shift around beside me. He heaved a sigh and switched his gun from one hand to the other. A second later his hand fell on my shoulder and squeezed.

"Hey. Hey now."

I blinked up at him through my tears.

"Look," he said. "I think you're okay. If it was in that park someone woulda seen her and we haven't had a female DB in over a... AOWW!"

It wasn't even something I did consciously. One minute he was talking, then next the buzz took over and I moved my head, just enough to sink my teeth into his arm. I had both hands up in a flash holding that delicious arm in place before he could yank it away. It wasn't as good as from the neck, not as close to the heart I guess, but ohhh it was definitely good enough. Happy blissful feelings filled me as I gulped down a mouthful. And then another.

A couple mouthfuls was all I got.

Nick was talking, even though I wasn't paying attention. If I had I would have heard the rising alarm in his voice. "Greg, let go. Greg. Let. Go. GREG." This time the order was accompanied by a click and the cold feel of the nuzzle of his gun against my cheekbone.

It may have not have necessarily been a kill shot, but my brain sure thought it was. It was like an instant off switch. I let go of his arm and opened my mouth. He jerked his arm away. "Christ," he swore and for some ridiculous reason I wondered if his parents would be disappointed. He heaved a sigh of relief at the same time. "Now why you go do that for?" he complained.

I turned my head to look at him and concentrated on breathing. In out. In… look at him, not the gun. "I'm sorry," I said softly. "I'm really really hungry."

Amazingly that got a half smile out of him. "I *gathered* that," he replied, looking his wrist over. Oh look it was already healing. That's nice. He must have thought it was nice too cause that half smile remained as he looked back at me and shook his head. His hand dropped and he clicked the safety back on again.

Realization hit me with a flash and a roaring in my ears. "Keep the gun on me," I said a bit desperately.

The half smile was gone. "What?" he replied, sounding incredulous.

I actually grabbed his arm and moved it up again so the gun was pointing at my forehead. Now that was a kill shot.

"I can control myself when you do," I replied. "See?" I threw my arms wide. "No bitie."

"That's…" he stopped talking and gave me a long, hard look. "Okay." He took a deep breath. And another. It occurred to me that Nick probably really didn't like playing with guns. Which is understandable in our line of work and how he was shot and all. "Okay." Carefully he switched the gun from one hand to the other and slowly started reaching to me.

He was going for my shoulder. His hand landed and carefully rested there.

It was a test. I got it. I kept my gaze level with him. The roaring in my ears was back but amazingly I could control it. I was so damn hungry, but staring down a muzzle of a loaded gun was occupying my senses more than eating his hand.

"I can't believe this," he muttered. From here I could see every detail of his face. The lines around his eyes, the hairs of his eyebrows, his tiny mole, the way sweat was slowly trickling down his left temple. He was nervous. He didn't pull away either.

Test wasn't over yet I guess. And sure enough his hand went travelling. Up my neck, cheek, mouth. I parted my lips. He frowned in concentration as he brought one finger tip to touch the tip of one of my canines.

And, holy crap, if this wasn't one of the most erotic things that had ever happened to me. Maybe teeth were an erogenous zone for vampires. The moment I thought that my brain replied with a 'Duh.' Smartass brain.

I don't know if Nick noticed my breathing had sped up but he definitely noticed when I moaned softly. He jerked away suddenly and blinked. "I… uh, yeah," he went to lower his gun but then remembered and brought it back up again. He then tapped his knee with his free hand and got back to his feet. He stood over me with his gun still trained. The safety was on, but it was still there, like a big black and silver barrier between us.

We stared at each other. "Nick," I said quietly. "I don't want to die."

I could practically see the clockwork going on in his head. "Yeah," he replied. "Yeah I get that," he scrubbed at his face with his hand again. "I don't want you to die either."

I lifted my arms and made a little shrug.

"Okay, okay look," he said, shifting from one foot to the other. "You need blood right?" I nodded. "People blood," I nodded again. He sighed and looked at one of the walls in the kitchen. Then the other wall. I wondered what he was leading up to.

What he was leading up to surprised the hell out of me. "So if I gave you some of mine, right now, would it stop you from going out and attacking someone else?" I stared at him in shock then slowly nodded.

"Nick, you don't have to…" I began.

"Yeah," he cut me off. "Yeah I kinda do. Here," he thrust the gun free hand towards me, underside of his wrist up. "Don't take too much. I don't want to die either. Or end up like you, no offense or anything."

I would have giggled if the situation wasn't so serious. "… Are you?" I began.

"Yeah," he replied. "Hurry up before I change my mind."

Oh-kay...

Slowly I sat up so that I was on my knees. God his wrist was so close I was salivating. Briefly I wondered if this was a test as well. If it was it was a really mean one.

My eyes darted to the gun. "You have to…" I began.

"Oh. Right," he moved his hand that was holding the weapon down to along his side so that the gun was pointed at the floor.

It was like instant release. I had that wrist in my mouth less than a second, and drinking greedily from it a second after that. I only vaguely registered his hiss when my teeth pierced his skin for the second time that night and his muttered comment that sounded something like "this is messed up". Then all I knew was bliss. Letting out a soft growl I lost myself in feeding.

A couple nudges with the handle of Nick's gun brought me back to reality. I looked up at him. He was breathing hard, an expression of intense concentration on his face. I swallowed and stopped drinking, reluctantly opening my mouth and letting him go. He didn't move. We stayed there frozen for a moment and I stared down at his wrist. Blood was pooling in the double wounds my teeth had made. I couldn't help it, it was too good to pass up. I quickly leaned forwards just enough to lap up the last couple drops with my tongue.

Nick groaned. It wasn't a pained groan either. I could see that as I sat back on my heels. I was at just the right height.

I looked away quickly. Hey, I wasn't doing much better myself but it wasn't quite as obvious when sitting.

"Enough?" Nick asked. It was a stupid question, if I drank much more he'd probably need a transfusion. I was kinda glad he interrupted me when he did.

Instead I looked back up at him and nodded.

He held his gun out and to the side, away from both of us. "Need this anymore?" he asked.

The buzzing had disappeared back into background noise. Apparently I had had enough to satisfy it for now.

I shook my head. "No. Not right now."

"Good," he quickly re-holstered it and turned away. I watched as he walked from the room. I almost asked him where he was going when I heard the sound of doors being opened and then closed again. Oh. Washroom.

"Third door to on your right!" I called out.

"Yeah thanks," he called back sarcastically.

I grinned.

###

When Nick got back I had my lab mostly set up again. He watched me silently for a bit. "You know it's too bad," he said finally.

"What's that?"I returned as I tried to position my laptop in the perfect place to be able to leech Internet off of the neighbors.

"Well we have crime scenes all the time with blood in them and you need the blood… and we can't get it to you. It almost seems like a waste."

I looked up and wrinkled my nose at him. "Ew… corpse blood."

He looked surprised at that. "You mean you can only drink it fresh?" he replied. The look on his face pretty much mirrored my reaction to his previous statement.

"Naw I could probably drink it. The question is, would I want to?" I flashed him a grin to show I was playing. "Hey, if it stays down and makes the cravings go away I'm all for it."

He watched me work with my laptop for a bit. "You're not going to leave then?" he asked.

I stiffened. "Do I need to?" I asked him.

He shook his head, then spread his hands wide. "Hey man, no one would believe me anyway. 'Hey Cath. Greg turned into a real vampire. Blood sucking and everything. Cool, huh?' "

I laughed off the tension and shook my head. "Grissom might believe you," I offered.

He grinned back at me. "Yeah, well, lucky for you Grissom is in Paris," I laughed at that too.

The laughter faded and we were both quiet for a bit. "I'm worried about you Greg," he said finally as he leaned against the counter.

"Yeah," I turned to look at him and smiled a bit. "I got that. Thank you," I said honestly.

He nodded and sighed. "I couldn't find anything in your house. The finger prints didn't match anyone in the database either."

"Well, it'd make sense if she's been around for a while. Finger printing is a relatively new technology."

He looked surprised at that. Okay, fingerprinting was old but not in comparison to the age of a vampire.

I looked at him. "Immortality? If she's been around for hundreds of years she's going to have learnt how to cover her tracks."

"Ah," he replied. "Right."

"I mean, if everything we know about vampires is true, I'll outlive you. And everyone we know. My mom would be so proud."

He was tuning out again. Or at least I thought he was. He turned to look at me suddenly. "Where did you say you met her again?"

"Organix," I replied. It was a relatively new night club near the strip that catered to the 'alternative' crowd.

He nodded and looked like he was considering something.

"Wait, you're not planning on going there are you?"

He struggled. "Nothing else is turning up. It's been over a week. Trails getting cold."

I groaned inwardly. Cowboy Nick going into a bar like that? Great. Granted he goes into bars like that often enough at work, but that was usually after all the people had cleared out and there was only a dead body lying around to be documented.

"At least let me go with," I replied.

He looked concerned. "Are you up to it?" he asked.

I gave him a look. "Did you feed me tonight?" I replied.

"Ah," Nick actually looked away with embarrassment. It was enduring. He covered it up by clearing his throat. "Well, despite the fact that SOMEONE left us short handed… I have tomorrow off," he said. He looked at me and smiled. "Let's say you and me do some hunting."

###


	3. Chapter 3

###

I could barely sleep that night… or day rather, I was so afraid of someone coming to the door and dragging me out into the sunlight. I guess what Nick said freaked me out more than I let on. Instead I paced the house and checked every nook and cranny. It was pretty much what you'd expect from a house that had been boarded up for a year or so. I decided if anyone came in I was going to go hide in the old freezer left in the basement. No one checked in places like that unless they wanted to store a lot of meat… or a dead body.

Okay maybe the freezer wasn't a great place to hide.

By the time Nick showed up I was wired and pacing the living room. Of course, Nick was relaxed as could be. Then again he's the guy who laughs off rolling a car. With me in it.

"You know," Nick began as we drove into the city. "I didn't work it or anything but Catherine had a case a few years back with some vampire wannabes. I looked up the case notes, one of the girls they interviewed said they went to something called a 'blood bar'."

"I remember," I replied with a small smile as I watched streetlights go by. "The blood they serve isn't real."

"No?"

"Naw," I shook my head. "It's usually a combination of alcohol, glucose, and red dye 5," I looked back at him and gave him a half smile. "Thanks for the thought though."

He was silent for a couple more blocks. "You know," he said. "I could probably put in a request at work for some. Say it's for a case. Heck Gil used to get us to donate all the time for his little experiments."

I smiled wider and shook my head. "Nick you'll get in trouble. At very least Catherine will ask where the blood is going."

He gave me a quick pensive look before returning his attention to the road. "Yeah, well, we need to figure something out G..."

"Yeah," I replied. "Later… pull over at that church would you?"

A half hour and a trip to a church to make sure I didn't burn in the presence of religious icons (I didn't) later we made it to the bar. A couple minutes after that we were wading through a sea of bodies and I…

… I wasn't doing so well.

I stumbled a bit… and then stumbled a bit more and Nick grabbed my arm. He yanked me off to the side, past some tables and to a wall. I slumped against it. "What's wrong?" he asked, his voice raised so he could be heard over the music.

I made a face. "It's just the smell," I replied, thudding my head back. "It's really really strong."

He looked worried. "Strong? Strong how?" he asked. "Bad?"

I shook my head. "No." I replied. "Good. Too good. And there's so many of them…" I trailed off in semi-awe as I looked, really looked at the crowd of people. It was a surreal experience. Last week I would have seen them as people. Now… now I saw them as food. A lot of food. Tons of food. An all you can eat buffet with choices from every color and flavor…

Nick grabbed my shoulder and shook it a bit. "Greg!"

I looked at him and blinked a couple times. "... yeah?" I replied. My, his neck looked tasty. I started to lean towards it before I stopped and remembered myself with a little head shake. Wow, this place was doing trippy things to my head. "There's so much food," I mumbled, a goofy grin on my face. I looked back at the dance floor.

Nick frowned… not that I could see it. I was too busy taking in the lights and the people dancing and how it was so good I could practically taste it. Then Nick semi-turned so he was half in between me and the dance floor. Typical 'stop confrontation' police maneuver. "Hey! Greg," He tapped the wall beside my head a couple of times to draw my attention. "Look at me."

I turned my head towards him. I blinked a couple times to focus on him and offered him a lazy smile.

"You going to be able to control yourself?" he asked.

I nodded slowly, and smiled wider. "Dude, you're like, really really hot."

I guess he was getting used to this stuff by now. He put his hands on his hips and looked about before looking back, smiling and shaking his head, which was Nick speak for disbelief.

"I mean it," I protested.

"Yup. Got it the first time," he replied. He took my arm and started to steer me away from the wall and back towards the front door.

Five minutes later we were back at his SUV, me sitting on the pavement against the back bumper and him standing there with his hands on his hips again.

"Wanna tell me what that was all about?" Nick asked.

I groaned and thudded my head back against the bumper. My head was clear now that we were out of there, which meant that humiliation was free to rein supreme over me. "I can't believe I said that," I groaned again.

"Yeah well, whatever." Nick replied. "I'm more worried about what the heck just happened in there."

I made a face. "I don't know. I just saw a bunch of people and they looked delicious. I guess it kind of got to my head." I gave him a shamefaced look. "I didn't attack anyone though. Not even you and you were two inches away."

He looked me over and then turned to start pacing a bit. "We're not going to be able to find her if you can't be around people without getting a bit crazy. I'm not going to risk it."

"Hey," I protested. "That girl picked me up here. Obviously she could control it. Maybe I just need practice."

He gave me a hard look. "At the risk of you turning into that thing you turned into yesterday? Nuh-huh." He shook his head and went back to pacing.

I let out a sigh of frustration. "Fine," I said getting to my feet. "We'll just forget about it then." I went for the front door of his car. "We'll go back and I'll just stay like this forever."

"Greg," he threw his hands wide. "Come on man, I didn't mean it like that…"

I got into the car. He stood behind it for a couple seconds, then sighed and got into the car beside me.

We sat there in silence for several minutes. "We'll figure it out," he said finally.

"Sure," I replied. I was sulking. I knew it, and he knew it too.

He sighed again and did up his seat belt. "I hate it when you get like this," he complained as he put the key in the ignition.

I threw out my hands. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be me right now? Any idea at all?"

He shot me a look. "No I don't and I don't want to. But I do know how you looked in there Greg, and it looked like you were high on drugs. Now maybe you can learn to control this thing, but right now… I don't know. Could you have even pointed the girl out if you saw her? Or were you too busy tripping out?"

I opened my mouth to protest, then closed it again. I opened it a second time, then closed it and glared out the window. He was right, from pretty much the moment I walked into the club all I saw was faceless human tasty treats. "Maybe not." I admitted grudgingly.

He sighed and turned on the car. "Tell you what," he said. "You gave me a pretty good description of her. Why don't I drop you off and come back here and ask around? I might be able to scare up some information for you."

I made a face. I really didn't like the idea of Nick going in there alone, especially if he found her, but I admitted I wasn't much of a help if I reacted like I was high, or drunk, around people. I was suddenly really really tired.

###

"Okay," he said once I got settled in back at the house. I had yawned and flopped down on my mattress the moment we got back.

"Yeah," I said. "You're off. I get it."

He gave me a somewhat enduring smile. "I'll be back in a couple hours."

I lifted my hand and waved lazily. "Have fun."

He turned away from me. He only made it a couple steps before a pleasant female voice stopped him. "Looking for me?" it said.

I sat boltright up, my eyes wide.

It was her. The Camilla chick. Standing in the doorway to the room. Shit, she must have followed us back from the club…

She looked from Nick, to me, smiled in such a way that her very pointy teeth showed, and then my entire world went to hell.

###

She attacked Nick first… at least I think she did… because one minute Nick was about to walk out of the room and the next he was flying backwards, towards the wall and hit it, hard. He slumped to the ground and stayed there, either unconscious or close to it.

"Nick!"I had scrambled to my feet and off of the mattress and she held out a hand towards me. I froze. For a long moment she stood there and I stood here and we stared at each other. I tried to move and failed. None of my muscles worked. Even my chest muscles had seized up. I was having trouble breathing, which made me panic and start to hyperventilate.

She seemed to be considering something. Then she waved her hand and it was like I was a puppet with strings that had been cut. I went limp and collapsed on the floor, gasping for breath. She smiled.

It wasn't a very nice smile.

"What do you want?" I asked from my new ground vantage point. Well, at least my voice box still worked.

She didn't reply as she ran her eyes all over the room, coldly assessing. Then she turned to the kitchen. "Not bad," she said as she took in my chemistry set. "Didn't take you long to settle in did it?"

I watched her. "I'm trying to find a cure," I replied. "Do you know of any?"

She looked back at me, surprised, then threw back her head and laughed. When she was done laughing she picked up a test tube casually. "You know… you didn't strike me as an especially smart boy," she said.

Now I was irritated. "And you're a lot hotter when you're on your back," I snapped.

Her smile froze. A second later she turned, opened a drawer and something came sailing at me. It hit me and it took me a moment to realize it was a kitchen knife. And it was embedded in my upper arm. And it hurt and I still couldn't move.

"Ow," I muttered.

She dusted her hands together and continued to explore my stuff. While she did that I risked a glance at Nick. His eyes were half open and he was looking at me out of the corner of them.

I opened my mouth to say something but he shook his head slightly.

Right. Playing dead time for Nick. Okay. I turned my attention back to the woman. "So do you know a cure? 'Cause this entire not being able to go outside during the day time puts a real kink in my social life."

She laughed again, shorter this time. "You still have no idea, do you?"

"Idea of what?" I replied.

She turned and opened a couple more drawers until she found what she was looking for. I saw she had a wooden spoon. She placed it against the side of the counter and there was a cracking sound. When she held it up I could see she had broken the spoon end off, leaving it in a nice splintered sharp tip.

I got it. Stake.

"Well yeah, I know I'm a vampire," I said quickly. I raised my head a bit. Oh hey… my limbs were starting to respond again. I struggled a bit, then managed to get myself into a sitting position. I reached up and grabbed at the knife in my arm, yanking it out. It clattered to the floor.

She watched me silently then shook her head and came into the dining room. "You have no idea what you've done." The expression on her face turned angry. My eyes widened and I pushed myself backwards. "We have rules. Guidelines. You're not even supposed to exist. You were supposed to wake up in your bed just like every other stupid human with a hangover and no idea what happened. But you," she pointed the wooden handle towards me. "You. Bit. Me. Back."

I blinked at that. I bit her back? Then I remembered. Oh yeah. I had, hadn't I? I had just thought she was being kinky… and *man* was that ever unsanitary. Not to mention dangerous. I could have contracted HIV. Can you get HIV from a vampire?

"With you running around our entire world is compromised," She continued kept walking towards me. I scrambled to my feet, nearly tripped over the mattress and pressed back against the wall.

"You are a liability. As well as him," she nodded towards Nick.

"Hey, now wait a second," I began, holding out my hands as if to ward her off. "That guy," I made a wavy hand motion at Nick. "Doesn't really believe in this stuff and hey, I – I'm a fast learner. You could teach me those rules maybe?" I attempted a cute look.

She didn't even both to answer me. Instead she grabbed me by my neck with one hand and slammed me up against the wall good and hard.

I groaned and she raised her other arm.

"No! Don't!" I tried to yank away from her unsuccessfully. The wooden stake ended up somewhere between my shoulder and my ribcage. If I thought the knife to the arm hurt, this hurt like a hundred times more. I cried out and she let me go.

I dropped to the bed and curled up on myself, moaning in pain.

She watched me for a moment, standing above me. Then, smiling, she reached down and unrolled me. She grabbed and yanked the wooden spoon out of me again. It felt like she was taking most of my insides with it and I screamed.

I quickly pressed my hand against the wound on instinct, very aware that I was getting my borrowed blood all over the place. I was also starting to feel dizzy. She watched as I tried to get to my feet again. I got to about my knees when she kicked me down and straddled me across the chest.

Great. Now I couldn't move or roll away.

I stared up at her as she raised the stake above her head. "Don't worry," she said. "The young ones always die quickly."

I admit it, I shut my eyes. So did not want to see my death coming.

Before I could feel anything three shots rang across the room. It threw her off of me. The wooden handle clattered to the floor.

It didn't take a genius to realize the shots had come from Nick. I looked over at him. He was still up against the wall, but now he had his arm extended towards me.

"Took you long enough," I complained.

He gave a semi-shrug. "Couldn't get a clear shot. Woulda got both of you. You okay?"

"Yeah I think I…"

Suddenly his eyes widened. "Get down!" he shouted and pointed his gun at me again. I barely managed to throw myself back down on the mattress when three more rounds went off.

"Shit!" I started to turn, but not nearly fast enough. An impossibly strong arm grabbed me around my throat and jerked me up and back against her. "Try that again," She said in my ear, talking to Nick.

He still had his gun trained on both of us. He was breathing hard and had brought his other hand up to hold the gun as well. "I shot you in the head," he said, looking a little spooked.

She laughed at that. "Guns can't kill us. Never could. But it could kill you."

With that she dropped me and flew at Nick. She had him on his feet and smashed against the wall in a second flat. The gun went off again, I didn't see where, and she yanked it out of his hands.

"No!" I shouted. I scrambled to my feet only to have her point the gun right to the middle of Nick's forehead.

She rolled her head lazily towards me. "Stay back," she said in a far too pleasant voice.

I froze and put my hands in the air in a surrender gesture. "D-don't shoot him," I begged, looking from her to Nick and back again. Nick's teeth were clenched with his head back against the wall to put as much distance between himself and the gun. Not that it really mattered, she was holding it two inches away. It was an instant kill shot… maybe not for her, but definitely for him.

"Ma'am," he began in a low voice. "Please…"

Her smile grew and she looked back at Nick. "My aren't you *polite*." She sounded delighted.

Nick drew in a deep breath. "If- if you'd just let me down I'll…"

Her attention was off of me. I rushed her. I knew I was faster now, and thought I could knock her away from Nick before she shot him. Hell, we were both screwed anyway, and it was worth it if it saved Nick Stokes life.

I didn't even get close. Her arm moved and two shots rang out. I heard Nick yell my name as I went down.

The next thing I knew I was on the ground writhing in agony and gasping for breath. One of the bullets hit a lung, I was sure of it. Just trying to breathe was torture.

I had never been more certain that I was going to die. Well, okay, maybe once before, but that was because someone was kicking me in the head over and over.

"*Greg*!"

I tried to get out that I was okay, even if I wasn't, but all that would come out was wet gasps. I could barely manage to raise my head. My vision was hazy. I looked up at them.

She still had Nick against the wall, holding him with one arm and pointing Nick's gun at me with the other. Nick was struggling against her, but I knew if he couldn't fight against me there was no way he would get anywhere with her either.

I guess she was satisfied with what she saw because she looked away from me and back to Nick. She brought the gun up to point at him again. He stilled and inhaled sharply, twisting his head to the side.

"S-stop," I choked out.

She looked back at me, surprised. "You just don't give up do you?" she exclaimed.

I couldn't even shake my head. Just laid there with my head resting in a small blood pool that was leaking from my mouth, looking at her with my eyes half closed. "P-please," It was hard to talk. I forced myself to anyway. "H-his name is Nick. He's a… really great guy. He always tries to help… people." I tried to pull myself up and failed.

Nick was watching me now, with this really sad look on his face and his eyes starting to tear up. That would be his empathy kicking in. Also I'm sure I looked plenty pathetic. I didn't care. I looked back at her. "Please. Just let him go. He doesn't deserve to die…"

Her mouth had been slightly open with disbelief as I spoke. As I trailed off her mouth snapped closed again. "You," she said with contempt. "Are extremely annoying." She looked back at Nick. "Is he always this annoying?"

Nick didn't reply. He didn't even look at her.

I coughed and answered for him. "I get that a lot," I said.

She snorted and swung her arm around to point the gun at me again. Nick let out a holler and two more shots rang out. This time I thought for sure she'd have shot me in the head, but the pain welled up from my thigh and knee. I let out a low groan and curled in on myself again.

"Stop it! You're killing him!" Nick had started fighting again, and she grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall again to make him stop.

"He's not dead yet," She said to Nick. "But he will be soon enough." With that she tossed the gun at me. Then, with a snarl, she sank her teeth into Nick's neck.

###


	4. Chapter 4

Warnings: Suggested non-con and actual non-con.

###

When she bit Nick I tried to struggle to my feet again, only to fail miserably. Of course. Both my legs had been shot. And my chest was on fire. I obviously did not have the regenerative powers she did.

Reaching out I managed to grab the gun she has tossed at me. I quickly pointed it at her only to realize how silly that was.

Shooting her would do nothing. She had proved that already. The only person I could shoot right now was…

Nick. And then I got it.

She threw the gun at me as a temptation. In my condition there was nothing I could do to save him… I was all the way across the room from him and I could barely move, let alone rush her again. At that moment she had managed to wrestle Nick down to the floor and was in the middle of making short work of his shirt as she fed from him. Nick was struggling of course, but it was a very unfair fight.

My stomach turned and I felt like I was going to be sick. In a couple minutes Nick would be dead and couldn't shoot him and put him out of his misery before that. Instead I was going to let him get raped and mutilated by a creature I had brought here. This was my fault, the entire thing was my fault, and Nick wouldn't be here either if it wasn't for me. I should have left, I should have… hell I should have offed myself when I realized what I was. This should have never happened…

Oh God, I'm sorry Nick.

I slowly lowered my arms to the floor and laid my head down as well, feeling absolutely helpless.

###

I couldn't watch. Looking away was the only bit of privacy I could afford him.

I couldn't do anything to prevent myself from hearing and that was almost worse, her growls and the occasional wet gasp of pain or… something else… from Nick. I shut my eyes.

Very briefly I wished I was dead. I opened my eyes a moment later.

The stake.

It was about three feet to my right, bloody tip gleaming in the low light from the kitchen. I glanced back at Nick and her briefly and then wished I hadn't, my stomach turning again. No… don't think about that. She was distracted, that was all that mattered. There was still a chance… I slowly started to pull myself across the floor towards it. As I did a tiny plan had begun to form in my mind. She was going to try to kill me after she was done with Nick, but if I had the stake I might just be able to use it on her before she killed me.

And, I thought, hope rising, if I staked her there was a chance I could save Nick, however small that chance was. If she left him alive at all. Even close to death I was sure I could change him over at very least. And yeah, it would make Nick a vampire too, but that was better than dead wasn't it?

I was close enough to get the stake now. I glanced back once again to make sure she was still distracted, then reached out and grasped it with numbed fingers. Carefully I slid the spoon handle into the sleeve of my shirt. With the remaining shreds of my energy I rolled over on my back and laid there, panting in pain. I needed to be on my back for leverage. Then I let the stake slide down into my hand and held onto it for dear life.

###

Seconds bled into minutes as I laid there and studied the ceiling. My chest was starting to feel better, though my legs were still throbbing. When all noises and shuffling about stopped and I turned my head, half afraid of what I'd find.

She was sitting, dressed again, with Nick's head in her lap, his eyes closed. Nick was naked, completely, and I felt my cheeks flush. There was also something odd about the way she was carding her fingers through Nick's dark locks of hair that seemed off to me. If he was dead there was no way she'd be doing that, would she?

She looked at me and smiled. "He'll wake up soon," She said, confirming my thoughts.

I couldn't help the startled look I gave her.

Oh god. She had turned him.

My brain started running through scenarios rapidly, and nearly all of them were bad or worse. She had turned Nick, which meant she planned to torture him more. Not only that, even though Nick wasn't going to remember having sex with her (I didn't remember anything past a couple seconds after she bit me), if he was turned he would remember everything she did from this point in. Like how I remembered attacking that jogger. I stared at her in mute horror.

At the same time Nick let out a small groan and began to stir.

###

The utter confusion on Nick's face when he came too would have been amusing in any other circumstance. He lifted his head, blinking, then looked down at himself. When he saw he was naked he looked up at Camilla and offered her a uncertain half smile, like he had gotten drunk and took a hot chick home for a fun night, but didn't remember any of it. Which… probably happened to him all the time as a frat boy in college and not so much anymore now that he was a mature responsible adult.

"Hey Nick," I tried.

Nick sat up ramrod straight and stared at me.

What really creeped me out was what happened next. He slowly started to smile, and it wasn't a nice smile at all.

Oh shit.

Camilla started to laugh as she got to her feet. "Let the games begin," she said, doing a mocking semi-bow as she did so. Nick looked at her and she made a hand motion towards me. "Go, my new born child," she added. "Feed off of your friend who fought so hard to save you," she looked right at me as she said it and smiled wider, enough so that her teeth gleamed in the low light.

Oh SHIT.

###

His entire demeanor had changed. Nick let out a soft growl as he started to walk towards me. I tried to get to my feet but only managed to get halfway there when Nick rushed and sacked me football tackle style.

I yelped as I was thrown back. He wrestled with me a bit before getting me onto the bed. His hard work-worn hands dug into my shoulders, crushing me down. For a brief second we looked at each other and I thought I could see Nick in there. His brows flew together and he looked confused for a second before the arching grin came back. He growled again, baring slightly longer canines.

At the same time his hands went wandering. They grabbed at my shirt, pulling it up, and then started on my pants.

I started to struggle despite myself. Don't get me wrong, Nick is hot. And yes I've had relationships with men before - I bat for both teams. And Nick looked mighty fine, I had noticed often enough in our communal locker room. Hell I could even say I had a bit of a thing for Nick years back which I had to repress for the good of the entire team. Work relationships? Doomed. Well, except for Sara and Grissom, but that relationship was doomed to bi-yearly visits and rare if nonexistent sexual encounters.

And now… I jerked and let out a little whine when he grabbed my dick through my pants. When he squeezed I groaned and tried to roll to the side, my eyes shut. He squeezed harder.

"Nick stop, please," I couldn't help it… it hurt and nausea rolled in my undead stomach. When he let go to jerk down my pants down survival instinct kicked in. I started struggling in earnest. "Stop!" I kicked at him, but all he did was catch my leg. He brought his head down and bit at my bare hip, drinking from it for a couple moments before tearing at it, with his teeth.

I let out a sharp cry of pain. Okay… that *hurt*. Badly. I laid back on the bed, breaths coming in small pained gasps. I didn't remember making huge gouges in the jogger… but then again, I pretty much just felt her up as I drank from her. It looked like Nick was after something much more involved.

Sure enough Nick made short work of the rest of my jeans and boxers, yanking them off of me.

I tried to curl upwards to cover myself but Nick would have none of that. He let out another growl and climbed back on top of me, grabbing me by the throat with one of his hands and squeezing.

"Nick!" I bucked up against him, trying to throw him off . That didn't work and he snarled, cuffing me upside the head with his other hand. My head rang and it jerked my head towards Camilla. She had come closer to us, a small smile on her face. She was obviously going to enjoy getting a front row seat to this…

I suddenly realized what I had to do. Nick wasn't going to stop, wasn't able to stop, with all those wonderful eat and fuck instincts running through him. And struggling was just going to make it worse for me, and make the memories worse for him when this was over.

I forced myself to go completely limp. Nick continued savagely, using his knees to kick my legs apart. Then he leaned over to bite into my shoulder, but I just went with it.

When I felt him thrust against me a couple times I drew in a deep breath, raised my aching legs and threaded them around his upper back, giving him access.

Nick paused, and pulled away just a little, his mouth covered in blood. There was confusion in his eyes. Apparently he had more control than I had if he was able to stop himself, even if for a second.

"Nick, its okay," I whispered at him, wondering if I could reach him.

Evidently not. He blinked and then just as quickly as the confusion appeared on his face it was gone. He grabbed me by my hips and I steeled myself. Prior relationships or no, I hadn't taken a man home in ages. No matter how much I wanted to relax, I was in a lot of pain from various injuries and it was just about to get much much worse.

Funny, the only think I could really think about was how badly I felt for Nick, as I screamed when he shoved his way inside of me. Yeah it felt like my insides were being torn apart, but screaming… Nick wasn't going to be able to forget that any time soon. My cry of pain quickly turned into a choked sound as he bit down on my neck and began to feed.

There was something about the biting that made arousal flare up and start to drown out the pain of everything else. I brought my arms up and held on to his shoulders, rocking in time with his thrusts. That… hey. That wasn't so bad if I just…

And then I felt the hard wood of the stake along the sleeve of my shirt.

Oh. OH!

I couldn't use it, not with Nick on top of me. And if Nick drained me right now I wouldn't be conscious enough and/or alive to use it. Escape suddenly outweighed the enjoyment of sex. Desperate to do SOMETHING I leaned up and bit at Nick. It was a bad angle of course but I got my fangs far enough in to draw blood.

All I wanted was to draw enough blood so that Nick wouldn't drain me completely. What I didn't expect was biting Nick was apparently what he needed to break out of the bloodlust hold. Nick let go of the hold his teeth had on my neck with a little gasp, wrenching his head back. I lost my bite as well, leaving two long scrapes across Nick's shoulder.

He stared down at me, his eyes wide with confusion and then horror. "Greg?" he said as he tried to pull away from me. "Greg!"

I tightened the grip my legs had on his backside. "Keep going," I hissed at him. And then, to encourage him, I grabbed him by the sides of his face and kissed him.

When I pulled away he still looked confused and horrified, though a little bit more on the confused side now. I pushed up against him to encourage him to continue, once, twice, and then he let out a bitten off groan. Behind him… behind both of us I heard Camilla laugh.

She was close. Close enough maybe?

I pulled his head down to my shoulder again with the arm that didn't have the spike up it. It only took a couple more encouraging movements for him to growl softly and continue to thrust. Good. Distraction in place, I brought my other hand to run it, deliberately, against his forearm so that he could feel the stake through the fabric.

He brought his head up again, slowly, as he gave me a questioning look from only inches away. I smiled and leaned up so close I was practically kissing him again. "Heart," I whispered, and carefully slipped the stake out of my shirt sleeve.

It was all he needed to know. One moment we were locked together, the next I had relaxed completely, letting go of the leg hold I had on him. He slid out of me and at the same time he grabbed the stake. In one inhumanly quick move he had turned and then I heard an unearthly howl.

I scrambled to my feet as well only to collapse again, but it was enough to see what was going on. Nick had the stake right in the center of her chest. She had her hands, now claws, embedded right into Nicks arm as she screamed. As I watched… as we both watched she went from beautiful to skeletal and then started to shimmer and break apart. In what seemed like forever but was probably just seconds she went from fully formed to a pile of dust, a pair of lifts and a little red dress on the floor.

Nick slowly lowered his arms, breathing hard and with an expression of utter disbelief on his face.

I didn't expect that staking her would cause me not to be a vampire anymore. That was unexpected. All I knew was the second she became a pile of dust felt an amplification of pain throughout my entire body. Like horrible searing pain. I doubled up on myself and started making these wounded gasping sounds. It felt like my chest was on fire. If I was mortal again that meant my only somewhat healed gunshot wounds were still gunshot wounds and I had two stab wounds to boot...

"Greg!" Nick was at my side in an instant, holding my head up, looking down at me frantically. "Greg, what is it?"

"Human," I managed to get out past the fact that I could barely breathe again. "Hospital. Call the hospital. Multiple… gunshot wounds…" I elaborated.

He got it. Seconds later he on his cell and calling 911. He suceeded in getting his own pants back on when I heard the sound of sirens outside. He quickly came back over to me to try to redress me but I cried out in pain when he brushed against the wound on one of my legs. All he managed to get back on was my loose-fitting boxers, but, hey, it was better than nothing.

I half heard the sound of paramedics breaking down the rest of the boards around the door. I was starting to fade in and out of consciousness by that point, but managed to get out Nick's name. He was at my side in an instant and I took his hand in my own. "Thanks," I said, giving his hand a weak squeeze. "For saving me."

I don't think I've ever seen Nick look as troubled as he did when they loaded me onto that stretcher.

###


	5. Chapter 5

When I woke up again it was daylight. I blinked open my eyes and started at a ceiling I didn't recognize, then turned my head. Everything slowly fell back into place.

I was okay. Or at very least alive. My entire body was numb which either meant the bullets had severed my spinal column or I was doped up to the gills. I figured it was the later… this wasn't the first time I was in a hospital bed. In fact this seemed to happen to me with alarming frequency.

I turned my head the other way. Catherine was sitting on the chair beside my bed with her eyes closed and head tilted to the side.

"Hey Cath," my voice came out all raspy and stuff. Guess it had been a while.

She awoke and looked up, then offered me a slow smile. God she was hot. Still. "Hey," she said.

"Hi," I returned. I looked around. "Nick?" I asked.

She was silent for a moment, her vivid blue eyes searching me. "He's… not here Greg," she said.

Uh oh. That wasn't good. I tried to sit up and absolutely failed. My head actually went fuzzy for a moment. "Nick!" I exclaimed once my head cleared a bit. "Where is he? Is he okay?"

Catherine was instantly standing at my side. "Shh," she coaxed. "Calm down. Nick's okay," she smiled reassuringly. I slowly relaxed by degrees and she sat back down in the chair.

"I, uh, we had some questions we needed to ask you regarding his involvement with your injuries," she said a few moments later.

I stared at her. Injuries? Oh yeah. "He didn't shoot me," I said.

"Yes, his statement said as much," Catherine actually looked somewhat uncomfortable now. "I meant elsewhere."

"Ohhhhh." I said. I winced mentally. "Oh. That. Eh," I attempted to shrug and failed, so opted for grinning. Silence stretched out between us and I realized she wanted an answer. "He wasn't the best, but I've had worse," I winked, or at least I think I winked.

It's not often that I appall my boss anymore, after working together for over ten years. But I did. Her mouth fell open a bit and pinned me with that look she does when she doesn't quite understand a criminal or why I did that particularly stupid thing.

That look also usually meant I was in big trouble and had better start explaining myself fast. I sobered up. "Look," I said. "Nick did nothing wrong. He wasn't able to control himself and he still managed to save my life. If he hadn't she would have killed him… she almost killed me," I took a deep breath and flinched as my chest decided to remind me that it had been injured. "Catherine you got to believe me. Nick did nothing. Wrong." My voice hitched on the last words and I shut my mouth again, embarrassed a bit that I was getting choked up.

If Nick lost his job over this I'd never forgive myself.

Catherine actually looked quite relieved. "It's okay, Greg," she said quickly as I fell silent. She smiled reassuringly. "Nick just said some things…"

"Well Nick is stupid," I muttered, sulkingly.

She smiled wider at that.

"Can I see him?" I asked.

The smile disappeared and she studied me long and hard. "Are you sure you want that?" she asked finally.

I gave her my best exasperated look. "YES," I nodded then winced again. Ow. "Catherine, please. I know Nick as well as you do. I'm worried about him."

"I am too," she admitted.

"Tell him I'm okay and that I want to see him. Make sure he's okay too."

She nodded slowly. "Okay. If that's what you want." She hesitated for a moment. "I can also have the DNA labeled irrelevant to the investigation."

Oh god, they took a DNA sample. Yeah that'd totally come back to Nick. I nodded quickly. "Yes. Please." I managed a weak smile. I knew full well that making that kind of evidence 'disappear' would be something that could get her into trouble. "Thanks, Cath," I said and meant it.

She nodded at the thanks, then sighed again. "I do still need to get a statement from you," she said.

I groaned out loud. When she was quiet and expectant, I went right for the point. "Did Nick say anything about vampires?" I asked. "The woman who shot me?"

Catherine gave me a strange look. "Uh... no. But I need to ask you about the woman you were both with," she leaned forwards in her chair. "We found ashes at the scene but there was no evidence to link them to anyone. All we know is that the remains are human. What on earth happened in there?"

"Oh thats easy," I replied with a grin that probably did nothing to hide my nervousness. "She was a vampire. We staked her after she attacked us and she went poof. No more vampire, or body… but hey I suppose it saves on cremation costs."

There was a pause. I looked at Catherine. She looked back at me. I was going to start twitching any second now.

Finally she smiled and gave me an enduring look. "Tell you what Greg," she said, patting my arm gently as she stood. "I'll get a statement from you when you are feeling better."

###

When I woke up again it was dark. I was in pain, I guess whatever they were pumping in me wasn't working very well at the moment. Amazingly it was my leg that hurt the worst… maybe that was because I was a vampire long enough for the chest wounds to heal but not the leg… I had no idea. Hey, at least I wasn't paralyzed.

There was also someone in the room with me. Someone tall, dark, and brooding. He stepped into the light and I could see he was not so tall, still dark and more worried than brooding.

"Nick!" I exclaimed, then coughed and bit back a cry of pain. OW.

He was at my side in a second. "Greg?" he questioned, concern on his face. "You okay man?"

I drew in a couple shallow breaths. "Yeah yeah, 'm okay," but he was already calling for a nurse.

Several minutes later I was feeling much better, if a little doped up. The pain was gone at least. He was now sitting beside me on the chair.

He had a half embarrassed half worried look on his face when I looked at him. I managed a little smile. "So how are you?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "I should be asking you that."

"Oh," I grinned, or, at least I think I grinned. "I'm great now," I nodded towards my drip bag. "Gotta love modern medicine."

He made a face, then sighed low and deep. "Greg…" he started.

I cut him off before he could go into… whatever he was going to go into. Maybe apologizing, probably talking about super awkward things like how the last time we were in the same room his body parts had ended up inside my body parts. "So, unless I was hallucinating, Catherine was here earlier. She didn't seem to believe me when I mentioned vampires." I said.

He looked up, surprised and derailed. Then he looked embarrassed again. "Well, uh, see, about that…"

"… You didn't tell her, did you?" I said.

He frowned. "No," he replied. He looked up really quickly. "I told her everything else. Just left out that bit."

I gave him an incredulous look. "Hey," I said. "I was a vampire. For a week and a half. I bit you, you bit me, there isn't anything more vampire-y than that."

He gave me a sheepish look. "I left out the bite bit too."

"Nick," I began, using my 'I'm being completely serious now' voice.

He made a face. "Aw come on, Greg! The bite marks disappeared by the time the paramedics arrived!" his Texan accent thickened as he spoke, which meant that he was getting worked up. "What was I supposed to tell Catherine, huh? Sara's already riding me over the spontaneous combustion thing and Doc keeps on giving me these looks. No ones gonna believe anything about vampires or whatever the heck went on back there," he actually got to his feet and started pacing. "All they're gonna see is a friggin DB made of ASH, and you," he made a hand motion at me. "With my gun's bullets inside'jya, not to mention OTHER things…" he stopped suddenly.

You could hear a pin drop in the room.

I groaned and turned my head away so I wouldn't have to see the guilt on his face. Way to make things awkward Nick.

"Catherine didn't do anything to you did she?" I asked the wall. "You still have your job, right?"

He was silent for a moment. "Yeah," he replied quietly. "I'm on a leave but I go back tomorrow."

"Good," I said. "I'm really glad, Nick."

He took a deep breath. "Greg…" he began.

I cut him off. "Don't."

He wasn't very good at listening. "I'm sorry," he completed.

I looked back at him and gave him a tired and probably somewhat exasperated look. "Nick. Look at me." He turned his head, the expression on his face plenty guilty and a bit questioning. I sighed. "I'm alive." I added.

He just looked at me. "You saved my life," I elaborated.

He shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. "Yeah maybe but I…"

"You did things, you lost control, yadda yadda I got it," I cut him off. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself, you're not the worst I've ever had. Next time we'll add a little bit of lube, perhaps some romantic music and I'll really show you a good time, okay?"

I said it jokingly but I think I actually stunned him into not knowing what to say. His mouth fell open. He shut it again. Then his forehead wrinkled. Finally he shook his head. "Greg, I can't…"

"Nick."

"I just…"

"Nick."

He looked at me.

"Please. Just *stop*," my voice cracked.

He must have saw whatever was on my face 'cause he nodded slowly. "Okay," he said. He walked over to the chair and sat in it heavily.

I regained control over myself and when I was ready, I looked back at him. He considered me for a moment, then smiled slightly. "Catherine says if you want to come back to the team she'd welcome you. You know, once you're recovered and all."

I smiled back at him at that, glad for the change of subject. "She just doesn't want to train anyone else."

Nick let out a little chuckle. "Naw," he replied.

We both lapsed into silence. Nick drew in a deep breath and let it out again. He didn't say anything now. Minutes passed.

This... wasn't going to work, was it? It wasn't fair of me to shut Nick down without letting him say what he needed to. Yeah sure it may be painful to me but it was even worse for him. I closed my eyes briefly and opened them again. "I'm sorry," I said contritely. "What were you going to say before?"

He looked surprised for a moment before his face screwed up into this sad expression. He turned his head to study the wall before looking back at me. "I never wanted to hurt you," he said quietly. His eyes started tearing up, and he looked away quickly.

"I know," I replied. When he didn't say anything else I sighed. "Nick, I've been there," he looked back at me. "Remember the jogger I told you about? I didn't just bite her." Realization flashed across his face, which quickly turned to concern. I continued. "And when I bit you the first time..." his cheeks flushed a bit. Oh yeah, he remembered. "I've never done that to anyone and I felt... feel really really bad about it. Dirty and gross and wrong. It's not a nice feeling at all. I mean in our job... we put people that do stuff like that in jail."

I pressed on. "You know what I thought back then? I wasn't thinking about how horrible it was or how much it hurt. I was thinking about how much it was hurting you. I didn't care about what was happening to me. I still don't care. I wish..." my voice caught and now I was getting emotional. It didn't help that he wouldn't look at me either, and what I could see... it appeared that tears were trailing down his cheeks. "I wish I could go back and save you from having to experience that. Ever."

I had to stop before I lost control of my emotions completely. I gulped and paused a bit before I continued. He was still unable to look at me, a hand pressed to his forehead to half cover his face. "Nick," I said in a low voice. I reached out towards him… or rather inched my hand towards him on the bed. My muscles weren't responding very fast but I was determined.

He raised his head slightly and saw the hand. He drew in deep breath, and then another probably to calm himself a bit and reached up and out. He hesitated a moment, glanced at me quickly, then carefully took my hand in his.

His hand was warm. I smiled briefly, and weakly squeezed it. "I just hope that you'll be able to forgive yourself eventually. Cause I've already forgiven you."

His grip tightened on my hand and he half hunched over in his chair. I let him silently break down for a bit, while I wondered what else I could do to make him feel better.

When his grip loosened and he had calmed somewhat I smiled at him again and brought his hand in mine towards my face. I was a bit amazed my body was able to do that what with the drugs and all, but hey. Bonus. Carefully I pressed my lips to the back of his hand. "And anyway," I said confidently. "You're still hot."

For once in my life it was exactly the right thing to say. He looked absolutely floored for a half a second as he looked up at me with his reddened eyes. Then he let out a bark of laughter and kept on laughing while I grinned at him.

When he got control of himself he reached out with his other hand and ruffled my hair gently, giving me a fond smile. "I'm glad you're okay, Greggo," he said, calling me by a nickname I hadn't heard him use in years.

I grinned sleepily. The medicine seemed to be kicking in. More. "Yeah, I totally am," I said with a yawn. "Or will be. I'm, like, super tough. You gonna stick around?" I asked hopefully.

He gave my hand one last squeeze and pulled away to sit back in his chair, small smile still on his face. It was nice to see. "Yeah," he replied. "Yeah, I'll be here."

###


End file.
